"You have to stop thinking that you're in charge and start thinking that you're having a dance. We used to think we're smart [...] but nobody is smarter than the internet. [...] One of the things we learned pretty early on is 'Don't ever, ever try to lie to the internet - because they will catch you. They will de-construct your spin. They will remember everything you ever say for eternity."

We've looked at a few examples of people trying to erase negative content about a subject on Wikipedia. Sometimes those people are caught immediately. Sometimes they're caught due to the seemingly unassociated acts of others, months or years later. Sometimes people are "caught", simply because someone perceived that they were attempting to do something subversive when they were honestly trying to improve a Wikipedia article.

The quote above comes from Gabe Newell, the Managing Director of Valve Corporation. He's stated this several times but this specific quote comes from the Nerdist podcast with Chris Hardwick. Gabe, also known as Gaben or GabeN (an homage to his often used username). Having built a company whose product rivals the likes of Nintendo and Playstation, Gaben is worshipped in certain corners of the internet. He and his company have a somewhat radical view of dealing with customers that includes Gaben having a publicly available email address that he responds to and a BBB customer service rating of "F". Even with such a rating, he and his company are worshipped.

As an example, a subreddit on Reddit known as PCMasterRace worships Gaben, in a half-serious, half-tongue-in-cheek sort of way. The subreddit has over 350,000 subscribers and its subscribers generally feel that Gaben, his company, and his product called Steam are the saviors of gaming. What are gamers being saved from? What they see as a the corporatization of the gaming industry in a way that hurts the gaming community for the sake of profit from poorly made and unfinished games.

Why is this important that Gabe Newell states that you should never lie to the internet. WCS agrees with this sentiment and a lot of other people agree with him. With regards to Wikipedia, this means not attempting to undermine the values and aims of Wikipedia. This means not trying to mislead others for the sake of spinning a situation. Why? Because you will eventually get caught. Sooner or later, someone will deconstruct your spin because the internet remembers everything you every say or write for eternity.